Street lighting with overhead street lights (referred to also as luminaires) is used throughout the United States, and the world, to provide lighting in desired areas for enhanced visibility when it is dark outside. Overhead lights are used in numerous applications, in addition to street lighting, such as parking lots, walkways, and open areas, for example. One common type of overhead light is known as a “cobra head.” Existing cobra head luminaires are virtually ubiquitous, comprising the bulk of the utility street lighting in the United States. They may use low-pressure sodium, high-pressure sodium, metal halide, or high-pressure mercury lamps. Next generation lighting technologies, particularly solid state lighting, hold forth the promise of greater efficiency, longer lifetime and lower maintenance than traditional lamps. This generally holds true only if the luminaire design is well suited to optimal utilization of solid-state lighting technologies, specifically LEDs—Light Emitting Diodes.
In order to efficiently utilize the salient characteristics of LEDs, a luminaire must be designed to direct the light from multiple LEDs in the desired pattern, provide heat sinking to keep the LEDs at a sufficiently cool operating temperature, be able to be mounted to existing standard pole structures and provide architects, designers, municipalities and others the ability to select a visual design that fulfills the aesthetic requirements of their particular installation.